MaxQuest

Also note the lash damage. 29.2 is 60% of 48.7. So it seems to be unaffected by penetration's x1.3 multiplier. Or the system actually checks corrode AR, but it was really high?

Skald drooling in the corner...)

I am looking at that Damage calculation, and don't quite get how the system has arrived to the final number of 48.7: 22.9 * (1 + 0.5 + 0.18 + 0.15 + 0.15) = 22.9 * 1.98 = 45.342 Also, iirc crit modifier is references as critDamageMult in the game databundle and has the value of 1.25...(gonna double check it) But even then: 22.9 * 1.25 * (1 + 0.18 + 0.15 + 0.15)) = 22.9 * 1.85 = 42.365 On a related note: how do you even get 18.5 here: image

Flickering. Not really bugs, but rather... little stuff that devs implemented, but didn't think about consequences. E.g: - Galactic Civilizations 1: you could threaten a minor race to pay you tribute. But not all instantly rather each turn for 50 turns. Now the game didn't check if they CAN pay all amount, but only if they have enough to pay the first transaction. So you could declare war 50 turns in a row, and each time negotiate peace for a huge total amount of money that was stacking. And somehow a small minor planet was power-housing a huge galactic empire. - Galactic Civilizations 2: you could get a technology that would give you 10% of total war profits in the galaxy. So first you were bribing (with huge amounts of money) all civilizations to declare war to each other... and then reaping astronomical profits. You basically built nothing at that point any longer. Everything was rush / instant-buy. - World of Warcraft: I have checked few private servers out of nostalgia few years ago. I remember one was pretty decent, but there was a critical bug which no one noticed as I understood for over a year! The attack speed bonuses were added... via spd * (1 - bonuses), rather than via spd / (1 + bonuses), and majority were saying that haste sucks,... you understand now that if you stacked enough, attack duration of a swing could get close to zero? skyrocketing to the moon the auto-attack dps? =)

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/msty.gif

Yeah, usually I try to experience the first playthrough without looking for metaknowledge. But in case of PoE1 there were a few immersion-breaking things for me, so... I've found pleasure in trying to come up with an OP and time-efficient party) It's enough for just one player to post the list ;D I know it's the incorrect usage as optimal is already superlative. But just can't think of it as such) We had a professor that was explaining us the Bisection method, and he was permanently repeating that there is a real solution (like x = 0.245645645645646...) and an optimal solution (when we know the approximate value and the error range is less than a predefined epsilon). And it's optimal because we got the value at a suiting precision, without wasting resources for computation of remaining part that we would round anyway. So it's kinda sticked from there. Nowadays, calling something optimal I mean that is not farther from ideal by +/- 10%, and most optimal by uhh, let's say +/- 1%

You lost me Just in case: in those charts I have indicated the percentage of damage that goes through. So if only 25% is going through, this means there was a 75% damage reduction. You take extra 30% of damage if attacker's PEN is x2 or higher than your AR. In case of the mentioned Geist that would be: if you have 5 or less AR. Under the current system, you would take: > 30% of incoming damage, if you have AR of 6 or higher > 100% of incoming damage, if you have AR equal to: 5, 4 or 3 > 130% of incoming damage, if you have AR equal to 2 or less

Do you feel that -1 AR is enough compared to the 100% Recovery Penalty?

Ayee indeed. I always felt that PoE1 encourages us to: - either build a tanky party - or a dps heavy with lots of hard cc My own preference was going for the second route. But being 4h into Deadfire Beta, it feels to be hardly even viable now. Looks down at Mercenary Wizard. So far feeling pushed towards 5 high-armored dual-wielders, 3 of them multi-classing in fighter and 3 in lifegiver/priest/wayfarer. Edit: added reply to Dr. Hieronymous Alloy: Well... There it is) I understand what you are saying. But I think lower cap of 75% damage reduction should not be touched. This guarantees that 25% of damage always goes through. That's 5% more than in PoE1, and 5% less than the 30% threshold set by Josh. As for upper cap - tbh I haven't made my mind yet. It would be better to roam across Eora for a little more =) But so far, I think 175% or 200% (tops) is fair. As it would require PEN-AR to be greater than 8, or greater than 12 respectively; which will come mostly from crit's x1.5 multiplier. I have examined your examples, and v2 is suiting them well too: - e1. In case of Sand Blight, casting Bulwark would decrease PEN minus AR from 6 to 1. And incoming damage would be reduced from 125% to 100% (according to v2); or from 130% to 105% (according to v1). And if you had Leather, casting Bulwark would decrease PEN min AR from 4 to -1. This would reduce incoming damage from 125% to 75% (according to v2); or from 125% to 95% (according to v1) - e2. According to current PEN system it's indeed better to fight him naked... unless you can get 12 AR, or substantially debuff his PEN. While in both of our suggestions, the AR will still be useful.

60%? Oh that's yummy. At the same time Firebrand turned out to be really bad. I mean it deals damage as usual great sword, but is burn/piercing instead of slash/piercing. Btw, Bitting Whip fully stacks with Soul Whip (resulting in +0.6 to damage coefficient). But shh =) As for bad builds, the following come to mind: - Bleakwalker/Lifegiver - you shall not heal - Hellwalker/Assassin - how big of a blow can we take - Skald/Sharpshooter - the definition of master of none

Yeap. That's the first thing that I thought too. Even double checked if there are any races with Resistance to Intellect Afflictions =) Gonna check who can cast the Smart Inspiration.

As I understood, Josh's idea was that we will check target's AR and switch to the best fitting weapon. But this is hardly happening, as it adds extra micro. We as players, like a flowing river will always try to find the easiest and fastest way. Usually it's just learning/listing all the AR values and plan the most optimal weapon for every member from the start. Yeap. And yes, I like a more ladder'ing approach. This enables small sweet spots, and also could suddenly make some weapons more efficient at 75%, while others (think stilettos) at 125%. So we'll have to plan in which [Pen-AR] window we would like to operate, on per-build basis. Hard to say. So far I think it's closer to yes, with the exception of PEN related modals whose values could (maybe) ask for rebalancing. But then again, we'll need to make the list of all weapons, their modal values and their attack/recovery durations first.

I have tried to visualize this, as it's easier to get a wider view: I think it's important to keep in mind that Pen-AR does affect not only our dps, but also the survivability of our "tanks". I've added a quick v2. But still thinking of all the pros and cons. Here how it looks: Btw, if you are interested in PoE1 situation (although there we could get a much lower PEN minus DR situations):

Thanks aartz! This explains it nicely) And these racials look way more interesting in the new light. Downgrading some of hard cc effects to soft cc during which characters can still perform actions is really valuable. Now, knowing what it is about, here's the tiering for other attributes: Might: - tier1: Staggered - tier2: Dazed - tier3: Stunned Constitution: - tier1: Sickened - tier2: Weakened - tier3: Enfeebled/Poison? - can't understand exactly (from inspecting statuseffects databundle) Dexterity: - tier1: Hobbled - tier2: Immobilized - tier3: Paralyzed Perception: - tier1: Distracted - tier2: Disoriented - tier3: Blind Intellect: - tier1: Confused - tier2: Charmed - tier3: Dominated Resolve: - tier1: Shaken - tier2: Frightened - tier3: Terrified Edit: cross-link to the post with the actual effects.

Well, here are the thoughts on the current racials: Resistance to X Afflictions: - as already mentioned it is not intuitive enough plus these talents are accompanied by a quite vague descriptions. - also some of these resistances can easily turn way more important than the others. For example in PoE1 having an extra defense vs stun would be much more impactful than a similar defense amount vs hobble, because a hobbled caster can still keep tossing spells. - additionally it depends on average encounter design. In PoE1 we had to face much more paralyzing enemies than pronning. Not to mention that stunning and pronning enemies were usually already easier to deal with, and that's one of the reasons why I never used a Coastal Aumaua. - and as usual: the interaction with similar effects, like barbarian's Unflinching talent is still unclear. Immunity to "slog zone" attacks: - still no idea what a "slog zone" is. Can graze primordials and wilders: - ability to graze can be crucial, especially vs high AR/Def enemies, as sometimes it can mean a difference between a wipe or kill: example - the graze allows the attack to actually connect and thus deliver the annihilation damage. - also this racial does not seem to be limited to weapon attacks/abilities; which is making it especially important for spellcasters because grazing with a cc is way better than missing altogether. - but... we don't know yet how many tough primordials and wilders there are in the game. Elemental Endurance: - their high AR vs fire looks a bit strange. Not to mention that it is currently twice higher than that for fire godlikes. - I would propose Elem Endurance grant 6 freeze AR + 2 fire AR, instead of the current +4/+4. Death's Usher: - in PoE1 Death's Usher was very underwhelming because if the enemy is very low (but not near death yet) he would often get killed in one hit/spell anyway, so the damage bonus from DU was wasted. Technically you would get most of it against high hp enemies, but then again if you brought it to near death you will most likely have no problem to finish it anyway. - it looks to be most useful for a triumphant paladin or any multi-classer that took the Mob Stance because you want to increase your chances of landing the killing blow. Pallid Fate: - the synergy with a Shieldbearer teammate and Barring's Death Door spell is obvious - so how good is this racial will likely depend on party composition Battle Forged: - I always looked at this as a monk "racial", because otherwise I just don't want my character to get hit, not to say linger below 50% hp. - This should scale and have some decent penetration to be worthwhile Ashen Skin: - it looks weird that Fire Godlike has lower AR bonus vs fire than Pale Elf. - tbh, I'd prefer if this was substituted with "Ashen Affinity": +4 AR vs burn, -2 AR vs freeze, +1 Power Level with fire abilities Silver Tide: - the most useful racial really. And in Deadfire healing becomes even more important than ever. - but it has to be scalling in order to compensate for better and better headgear comming along Wellspring of Life: - my favourite so far. The numbers can be tweaked if needed. But the fact that this can be reliably proc'ed is what makes it interesting to me. Fighting Spirit: - with the loss of 20s proc duration, this looks as unnecessary nerfed. Personally I try to keep my party at more than 50% hp, in order to avoid someone being one-shot when several enemy spellcasters happen to choose the same target. Minor Threat: - on the first sight this is a talent suiting a single target dps character. The thing is such annihilators will usually have a target of their own. And having to select a target threatened by a teammate is really limiting. - but it looks like a great talent for Skalds and Barbarians that upgrade their Frenzy.

You can check the current list of racials posted Alhoon here. And additionally follow this related thread.

In my case it exists. But it has the name of location, and not the one I gave to it. Will add a few bugs to those listed: 1). You can't leave combat after the drakes fight in Poko Kohara. One Drake becomes untargetable. And it happened again after reload: image 2). The Stormturner Cloak is bright like the sun: image1, image2 3). Possible type in Mead description, as recovery penalty is heluva big: image 4). Elemental Corpus (Fury "chest") is missing it's icon: image 5). Graze calculation seems to be incorrect: image. It should be 28.028 if graze is additive as shown in tooltip; or 18.914 if it's multiplicative. 6). Cipher powers don't show their focus cost.

It depends how big was the damage coefficient. Deathblows + high might could often result in respectable damage even on graze. And I'm probably not the only one remembering Alpine Dragon grazing on High Roll for more damage than critting on Low Roll. Also I kinda liked that you could rise defenses in order to rule crits and most of regular hits off, and wear high DR which is most effective vs grazes. At the same time, if someone was hitting way too hard, instead of DR you would rely on high Endurance or cc instead.

* is thinking too keep it short or give an elaborated answer * And in order to stay on topic, here's my set of first impressions: Note: feedback below is based on observation rather than direct experience. UI: The start screen looks splendid. The sunset brings a nice warm feel. I love it. The new difficulty names are good. Actually even great. They are easy to understand, and choosing 'relaxing' won't make players feel uncomfortable for slacking from challenge. Liking the new textures for views and windows. Character Creation needs work though:Navigation is clunky. Once you have arrived to class selection, you can't go back to the sex/race views. The 'shield' icons from the bottom navbar can't be used as shortcuts. Class and subclass selection could be combined into a single view, with subclasses choices being expanded in accordion style (this would help with constant Prev/Next navigation). Etc. Racials are missing. UI controls require extra polishing. The green art for labels; chevrons/textures on select/preview buttons just don't look good/slick enough. The spells/talents/abilities selection screen looks like made by a programmer. It's ok for beta. But a release ready version is asking for a touch from UX designer. There are missing buttons/links to Cyclopedia articles, especially to: List of Inspirations, List of Status Effects, Attack Resolution, Damage Calculation, Armor Penetration and Power Level system explanations and related stacking rules. Tooltips:They were intended to be more transparent and intuitive than in PoE1, not less. They look a big fuggly. The closing "X" is just snapped over. And the content behind open tooltips is catching mouseover events. CHARACTER MODELS:Amazing. It's a huge step forward compared to PoE1. I can finally start considering other races besides human or elf for the MC. No really, they are amazing. Whoever did it - my hats off to you. Posses and attribute annotations (like clumsy/average/agile/graceful) is a nice touch. I like it. More hairstyles is always good. Even though am more into mechanics department, hairstyles are important to me. There is a lack of head models - but as I understood they are already being worked on. Ability to choose eye color would be a nice one to have. CLASSES:Hell yea! Multi-classing! There gonna be so many variants to build a character! Optimal variants. Some possibilities look to be cut off. I am speaking of talents accessible to all classes. And imho this is not good. Imagine a PoE1 player. He hears multi-classing, and he's excited, imagining the current spectre of possibilities plus multi-classing on top. Then he realizes that he cannot make this build or that build. Concrete example: troubadour priest with Inspiring Radiance, Painful Interdiction, 1H&Shield Style, Superior Deflection, Scion of Flame and the rest dumped in Racial Slayer talents. I don't want to multi-class into fighter to make my character tanky. I want to take two specific spellcasters, because exactly this combination will fill a niche in my party; and I am intending to make him tanky enough via general talents. Unnecessary nerfs feel unnecessary. Why did Knockdown become Primary Attack? Why did Torment's Reach became Primary Attack as well? Why was Wounding Shot nerfed and now require 2 ability points? Why did Ancient Memory became a Phrase, instead of the passive it was? (and again it's tooltip doesn't even mention how much does it heal). Why many powers got nerfed in damage? (and if they scale with Power Level, their tooltips don't mention it). Where are elemental damage talents? Some classes seem to be not like the others. The idea is that there is incentive to multi-class in all of them. Now try to imagine how many builds would gain from multi-classing in ranger, compared to multi-classing in fighter. Spellcasters start with way too few spells/powers. It detriments their flexibility. RACIALS:They gonna be confusing for new players. Resistance to Might/Dexterity/etc Afflictions is absolutely non-intuitive. First of all we don't have the list of afflictions linked. And second: "resistance"" is something relative; it has to be accompanied with a percentage or a flat number + limits. If you meant something binary, there is "immunity" for that. Fire Godlikes having lower AR bonus against fire than Pale Elves looks a bit strange. The "Near Death" effects seem to be overestimated. In practice they are never as good, because characters and enemies do not usually linger near death for more than an instant. They are either dead, or heal up. CONVERSATIONS:The watercolor portraits in conversation screen look better than expected. That's nice. Too frequent inclusion of words from another "languages" feels a bit unnatural. Some character and especially location names are quite hard-memorable. Usually it ends up in something like: TakiWhatever SYSTEMS:Inspirations. From one point I understand that instead of having two spells that give let's say +5 MIG bonus, and then having to explain to players how they stack, you decided to go with these inspiration boons. But you know what? It's not intuitive enough, and you still have to explain if do they stack completely, refresh duration or add to duration. Additionally UI does not clarify their interaction with afflictions. And until it's done, personally I view Inspirations in a rather bad light, as the intention was likely intended to add extra transparency to status effects, and not obfuscation which it currently does. Armor Penetration. As expected it's all or nothing. The threshold is too abrupt. Trying to force players to permanently switch their weapons is not really going to work. We will just memorize the AR ratings of most enemies and will find the most optimal 1-2 weapons for each party member (with highest dps, but just enough Pen in order to not suffer from x0.3 malus) Injuries. -25% of max HP per wound looks too harsh. 15% is the highest limit here imho, because at 3 wounds you should suffer from enough defence maluses anyway. Power Level. Can't objectively comment on this yet. It seems the initial idea has quite shifted, and it's no longer used as universal scaler for character's impact. Attack Resolution. The removal of grazes from basic resolution was quite a surprise. I'd like to hear the reasoning behind this, besides the 'grazes were causing extra spam in the combat log'. But to tell is it good or is it a bad change, one will have to test it in practice. OVERALL:The general impression is a positive one. With it's UP being more related to the graphical and character model department. And it's DOWN to the lack of clear tooltips and some systems appearing as questionable on the first sight. P.S. Ehh. Screw it, I'm jumping in. Beta is currently downloading in background.

Oh. Thanks for pointing it out. This means Moon and Nature godlikes don't have their second racial defined yet?

"I think you might be overthinking it" P.S. And again, can someone answer if ARBypass effect is additive or multiplicative in regard to other damage coefficients?

Nope. Curious why they decided to skip px3 as well. Also, it's interesting how they moved from the their usual versioning to semver. I.e. after v3.06.1254 comes v3.7.0.1280

It does show it in description. Note the +/- At first I was like wow, that's gonna be one really fast arbalest. But then wait a second, it's garbage. And yes, agreed with Kaylon, this probably was not intended.

Thanks you a lot Alhoon! Few thoughts on these racials: - "Resistance to X Afflictions" looks super vague. Is it +10 to defenses? +20? +100? Or perhaps it's -x seconds to their duration? - "Can Graze, Can Graze" - no comment... - "Immunity to Slog Zone attacks" - no comment... - "Resistance to Dexterity Afflictions" - there are 6 stats, so this helps vs 1/6 of stat related afflictions. Feels useless for a ranged cc/dps character. Really hope it will be possible to import a PoE1 save but change the race, as all my MCs were wood elves... - "Fighting Spirit" seems to be nerfed. It had a 20s proc before, now it seems to be passive. And my characters are above 50% endurance most of the time. - "Minor Threat": I would heavily prefer "5% of hits converted to crits; and extra x% more if attacking the enemy which is already threatened by a teammate" Godlikes: - Death Godlike: remains underpowered as in practice the bonus damage will translate into less than +5% overall. As for +3 bonus to power level, I doubt I will be consistently lingering around "Near Death". - Fire Godlikes: feel underpowered. They have less AR vs burn than pale elves. Ant it feels strange. Plus the Battle Forged damage is too low, and description doesn't mention that it is scaling. - Moon Godlike: The Silver Tide heal seems to get nerfed...unless screenshot was made using a level 1 character @10 MIG. But being able to reliably trigger +2 to power level via Wellspring of Life is nice. - Nature Godlike: missing. As pointed by JerekKruger Wellspring of Life is related to Nature Godlike. Have to wait for their second racial to be revealed.

Yea. I was thinking how to retcon this, and there definitely are few ways to bring her back. This would require modding though. And PoE1 was quite rusty in this regard. But who knows what Deadfire will bring...